All He Does Is Score Goals: Part IV

Washington 4 - Philadelphia 3 F/OT

I didn't see the game today, so I'll keep things simple, as I'm basing my whole recap on the box score.

• Good - Opening up a three goal lead. I don't have the stats in front of me, but I would guess that today was only the second or third time the Caps have had a lead that big at any point in a game.
• Bad - Blowing a three goal lead.
• Good - Not giving up after blowing a three goal lead. This is especially encouraging, as this is a team that packed it in after blowing a one goal lead in the 2nd period on Wednesday.
• Especially good - Donald Brashear. All he does is score goals.

This is only the second time all season that the Capitals have managed a win when allowing their opponent to score more than one goal. They had previously been 1-14-1 in such games.

The Season Isn't Over Yet? Seriously?

Many people never quite understood my exasperation with Dainius Zubrus. Or, if they understood, they probably didn't agree. But tonight, during the first period, Joe Beninati uttered the following words: "Zubrus has his stick lifted by a back-checking Alexander Semin." No, that isn't a typo, you read "Alexander Semin". This may be the only instance in the history (and the future) of hockey that anybody has been succesfully defended by a back-checking Alexander Semin, and I defy you to find another forward in the NHL besides Dainius who could make it happen.

In other Caps-Sabres news, I went ahead and granted commenter/younger brother/sometime contributor DefDude a reprieve over on the left side of the page, replacing him with Brian Pothier immediately after a Pothier turnover resulted in the Sabres' second goal. Just three minutes later, he goes and scores a goal. Do not doubt the power of the KHFC Whipping Boy© award. (Please note that the Capitals are 2-1 with a total of 14 goals scored in the three games since the inception of the KHFCWB©. I don't think it is too far out of the question for me to take full credit for the wins over Toronto and Tampa Bay.) (No, his goal is not enough to earn him a reprieve. A poor decision by the judge of a certain nickname contest might get him off though.)

In other news, I get the chance to say, once again, that "All [Donald Brashear] does is score goals!" Also, shots to the head of Andrew Peters, who is going to need some Advil when he gets home tonight. And then again some more a week from now. If ever you find yourself wondering "Would it be a good idea for me to get in a fight with Donald Brashear?", I beg you to watch a video of tonight's fight. Because you, not being a professional hockey player, will probably be killed.

Oh right... Also, the Caps lost by a wide margin. The result is pretty much irrelevant, so I don't particularly care to comment on it other than to say that, if a few bounces in the first period go another way, the Caps probably jump out to an early lead and end up at least taking the Sabres to overtime. But they didn't, so they didn't. Oh well.

All He Does Is Score Goals: Part II

Wow.

(I had a really long, obscenely insightful recap written. And then my computer ate it. The one you see here will not be quite as mind-blowing. Sorry.)

What a game. Seriously? That was one of the best hockey games I've seen in a long time. So I'm having a hard time getting upset about this loss. (Especially when compared to my level of upset-ness at my computer right now.) Great chances each way, fantastic flow and it really could have gone either way. But it didn't. It went the Senators way. Which, at this point in the season, is a very bad thing.

Alex Ovechkin was flying all over the ice as well as I've ever seen him. Alex Semin was damn near untouchable stickhandling all over the place. It seemed like every time the puck entered Martin Gerber's crease, the Caps were getting two, three, even four quality whacks at it. Yet somehow they failed to score. Time after time the puck bounced over someone's stick or went wide or ended up right in Gerber's belly. Frustrating? A little bit, yeah.

This is not to take anything away from Ottawa's play tonight. This is what quality teams do. They take games that they don't deserve to win, and through a combination of lucky bounces and timely goaltending they turn them into two points in the standings. There's no ignoring the fact that Gerber had 35 saves on 37 shots for a .946 save percentage (Olie was .921), and Dany Heatley's goal was a thing of beauty (who knew non-European players could use their feet like that?). In fact, I have a strong feeling that Heatley was probably robbed of what should have been a second goal, not that I'm going to complain about that particular call.

When you get down to it, though, it all comes down to the Caps' inability to convert on their scoring chances. Given the way they were playing in the last two periods, I found myself thinking "They have to tie the game up soon. There's no way it won't happen. Right? Right?!?" (as the minutes ticked down, the ratio of exclamation marks to question marks got exponentially higher). I think this may end up being something of a microcosm for the Caps' whole season; coming tantalizingly close only to come up just short on opportunity after opportunity. If anything, the Caps loss tonight is probably further proof that they are still a year away from seriously contending for aplayoff spot. However, if they can play all of the games between here and April the way they played tonight, I will be okay with that.

(P.S. - I obviously can't go an entire recap without mentioning Donald Brashear's second goal of the season (as alluded to in the entry title), can I? Congratulations to everybody's favorite #87.)

Recaps From People That Matter:
-A View From the Cheap Seats
-Bleatings From a Caps Nut
-Capital Fanatic
-Capitals Corner (f.k.a. Capital Punishment)
-Japers' Rink
-The Peerless Prognosticator

All He Does Is Score Goals

The headline is my go-to tongue in cheek thing to say pretty much every time Donald Brashear touches the puck. (Except when I'm by myself. Because turning and saying that to a complete stranger would simply be innappropriate.) So the best moment of the Capitals 6-2 win over the Flyers had to be Brashear's goal in the second period. I also enjoyed it because I seemed to be the only person in my entire section who realized a goal had been scored, and there are few things I enjoy more than feeling superior to others.

Another fun thing about tonights game was that I was lucky enough to end up seated in Section 114 right next to Barra Brava. While I don't necessarily condone their style of cheering, I can't say I was annoyed by it either. There was certainly alot more energy in the building as a result of it (or at least my little corner of the building). What I definitely can't condone, however, is any cheer or chant that is taken from a Broadway musical. So if you are a member of the Bravas and you happen to be reading this, the "We Love You Capitals" song has got to go. It is bad enough that it is set to a song from the god-awful Bye, Bye, Birdie, but it is set to the most obscenely stupefyingly annoying song in the entire show.

Okay, sorry... my inner musical theatre geek got carried away there for a moment. Seriously though, much kudos to Barra Brava. Partly because of the enthusiasm, and also in part because of the increased Caps Blogger activity in and around my section. I saw Dan Steinberg of DC Sports Bog walking around and I'm pretty sure I saw Chanuck up towards the top of the section. I also happened to run into Caps Chick on the way out. So that was fun. (From the A.P. recap of the game: "A boisterous contingent from the D.C. United fan club decided to give hockey a try Monday night. The "Barra Brava" took over most of a section in the upper deck and behaved like soccer fans -- standing, singing and chanting for most of the game.")

Oh right, the actual game. To be honest, I wasn't especially impressed with the Caps tonight. Brashear's first of the year was certainly exciting, and Alex Ovechkin's goal was a thing of beauty, but overall, I thought they could have played much better. If you take away the three cheap goals that Esche allowed, the offensive production was not where it needed to be against a vastly inferior team like the Flyers. The power play was anemic for most of the game and the defense was just lucky that every player in a white sweater had a nasty case of Zubrusitis, because there were quite a few instances where a Flyers player had the puck in front of them on the doorstep to a wide open net.

Don't get me wrong, it was the most fun I've had at a hockey game since, well, actually since last week's shellacking of the Canadiens. Any time you can be there to watch the Caps finish off a season sweep of the Flyers for the first time ever is a night to remember. Also, if I've done my math right, Ovechkin is now alone atop the goal scoring leaderboard. So I'm going to go ahead and chalk it up to an off night that was lucky enough to come against the worst team in the NHL, and just count my lucky stars that I was there to see it in all it's glory.

Recaps From People That Matter:
-A View From the Cheap Seats
-Bleatings From a Caps Nut
-DCSportsChick
-Japers' Rink
-Off Wing Opinion (courtesy of On Frozen Blog)
-The Peerless Prognosticator

Pictures!:
If you'll take a moment to look back to October, when the Calder Trophy was on display at Verizon Center, you'll remember that I had a little too much fun with my then-new camera phone. This time, it's a Cup instead of a Trophy, but my attitude towards my camera phone hasn't changed.